Update: The Newest Colleges and Universities to Ban the Bottle

Colleges and Universities have been known to consume more plastic bottles annually than most other organizations. Many students and staff dislike this statistic and are taking the stand to bring an end to the sale of bottled water within their campuses. Many efforts have been taken by various schools around the country including the establishment of campus-wide campaigns promoting sustainability including Take Back the Tap at University of Nevada Las Vegas and Tap That at Vassar College.

As more and more Colleges and Universities take the steps towards Banning the Bottle, we want to recap and congratulate the schools that have already or are currently working towards Banning the Bottle from their campuses.

Take a look at this map which includes a list of the most recent schools that have started a campaign towards Banning the Bottle and those schools who have successfully accomplished the campus-wide bottle ban.

22 Responses to Update: The Newest Colleges and Universities to Ban the Bottle

How do I get my Seattle on the map? The year before last, Seattle Central Community College successfully implemented a campaign to stop the sale of bottled water at all three campus stores (the vending machines are the next target). Seattle University has stopped selling bottled water on campus entirely.

University of Wisconsin at Madison has not banned plastic water bottles, unfortunately. As a student there I can guarantee that it does not belong on that map. However, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has.

The University of Wisconsin Madison will be making a strong push on this campaign starting this month. Multiple student Organizations will be in collaboration to work towards a ban on the water bottles on campus. The campus does belong on the map!

So the campaign has kick started here at UW-Madison. A petition is circling the campus as we speak as well as online at change.org under Bottle Free Badgers. A blog has also been created as well as a facebook page. The campaign has only been official for about a week now, so there’s a lot of work to do yet, but a lot of progress has been made. Meeting are setup to talk about the contracts with certain buildings. UW-Madison is onboard with this campaign, and will not be stopping.

Plymouth State University has begun seriously looking at the possibility of banning bottled water and I was wondering if there were any common roadblocks (we assume that most contracts are similar when dealing with exclusivity contracts from major companies) or successful steps other schools took in banning bottled water?

Thanks for the comment Chris! I say your best option is to reach out to those schools who have successfully Banned the Bottle and contact their sustainability coordinator to see what barriers they faced and how they confronted those issues. Check out our map for a list of schools that have Banned the Bottle. http://www.banthebottle.net/map-of-campaigns/

I am looking at doing my Girl Scout Gold Award project on something similar to this at my public high school. While I cannot ban the bottle because my school is a public school that sells the bottles at lunch to pay for subsidized lunches for students who cannot afford them, I am looking to outfit my school to make them water bottle refill friendly to promote the use of reusable water bottles the reuse and recycling of plastic water bottles. So I have a question: 1) Any advice/help from anyone who has done this?

Thanks for the comment! What a great idea for your Girl Scout Gold Award project!

I would recommend, if you are looking to make your school reusable water bottle refilling friendly, to look towards the various refilling stations that are available. You could check out the “Hydration Station” from Brita: http://www.britahydrationstation.com/.

In addition, contact a company such as Nalgene that could help you create customized reusable water bottles, with your schools logo or mascot on them, for you to sell to students, staff, etc. With those bottles, students could fill them up at the refilling stations!

Kasey,
Another solution for schools and campuses is to bottle their own tap water. On site, schools can lease or buy an appliance the size of a kitchen refrigerator that sanitizes the bottles, fills the bottles with filtered tap water, seals and caps the bottles. The bottles are sold at venues just like traditional bottles, but are then returned, washed/sanitized, filled and resold again. The aluminum recycled bottles eliminate the plastic bottles, maintains the convenience of bottled water (tap), and maintains the revenue stream. It also gives great opportunity to brand and advertise and customize the bottles. Football schedules, green messages, school logos, etc.

you my look in to insalling water filling station i found a great filling station in Houston TX.at a place called dreamtree family not only do you fill your owen recycled gal. of water but it also has good health benefits of Antioxidant / Alkaline Water the address is 5757 Ranchester DR ,suite 300 Houson, Tx i also noted no small plastic bottles where used . this my be a great thing for all schools and university.to think about. i visited a site called dreamtreefamily.com / j f .

I would love to see the University of Illinois Champaign/Ubana ban the bottles! The on-campus litter is a huge problem and water bottles make up a large part of the debris. Reusable stainless steel bottles would help greatly. 30,000 students = a LOT of wasted plastic!!

Has anyone ever encountered problems with university contracts? I am leading a campaign at Santa Clara University and our school is in the first year of a seven year contract with Coke (yuck). I’ve been told it is very difficult (some say impossible) to go against the contract. I know it can be possible – we have great support from the student body and faculty. Any advice? Thanks!

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About Ban the Bottle

Ban the Bottle is an organization promoting the environment by advocating bans on one-time-use plastic water bottles. We believe that tap water tastes great and by eliminating plastic bottles in schools, offices and public areas, we can eliminate unneeded waste in landfills.